The War Begins
by BenRG
Summary: The Justice League was a noble experiment.  What could persuade one of its founders that it had failed? And what then can take its place?
1. DEMON's Fall

**Batman – The War Begins**

By BenRG

**Disclaimer**

Batman, the characters of the Batman and the Justice League universes are the property of DC Comics and its owners. This is a not-for-profit fan work for free distribution through the world-wide web. The author and distributor make no claim of ownership

**Author's Notes**

First and foremost, this story emerged from some thinking that I did about whether or not Batman really fit in with the Justice League and its philosophy. It also includes some aspects of my thinking of how one could salvage the DC comics' Batman continuity, despite some of the more _eccentric_ recent meta-plot developments without a total reboot.

This story exists in a similar fanon universe as my Teen Titans story 'Futures'. Although there are some differences, it has common characters and the same relationships.

I've decided to post this story, even though I'm not entirely satisfied with the way I resolved the Talia issue. Although I think the methods used here are credible, I'm not sure that this was the best resolution (or the one Bruce would necessarily have chosen). However, I'm not Batman; after a lot of brain-storming, I've given up finding another plot device to remove her from the game and will go with what I've got.

**Censor: T** – Not for the younger ones

* * *

**Chapter 1 – The DEMON's Fall**

Bruce Wayne sat in his high-backed armchair in the study of Wayne Manor, looking over the South River towards Gotham City proper.

Bruce took a sip of his mineral water as he thought back on recent events. It had been... even by his standards... a momentous few days.

The deed was done. The Justice League was broken.

In hindsight, as much as he had _wanted_ to believe in Clark and Diana's vision, this day had been inevitable. As he had feared, super-powers corrupt to a _super_ior degree. There was no doubt that the League had been formed with the highest and noblest of ambitions. However, all too quickly, it had lost focus. Instead of the root-and-branch world of fighting crime and corruption, of helping the helpless, the League tried to hold itself above the petty cares of the ordinary mortals. Oh, the League had done good work, facing down extra-terrestrial and other omniscopic threats. It had also been highly effective in dealing with natural disasters. However, in the field of bringing _justice_ it had been a pitiful joke. Bruce had lost count of the number of times the League had ignored blatant misrule and criminality on a national or supra-national scale simply because the perpetrators had some measure of legitimacy in the eyes of some commercial, political or religious authority.

No, instead it followed Diana's lofty maxim: "_It isn't our place to decide on who rules and what laws are enforced. We can only guide and protect, not rule!_"

Or as Clark put it more than once: "_We're a light to the roadway, Bruce. We can't decide what road is taken!_"

Bruce managed to restrain a growl. What good was setting an example when no-one was watching? You couldn't be a good example to someone whose only value-set was arranged around self-aggrandisement. No amount of kind, wise words and good deeds were of the slightest interest to these types of personalities, other than to confirm that you are a weak-willed fool ripe for exploitation. The ordinary people of the world saw brightly-clad colossi bestriding the world and meaning close to nothing to their day-to-day lives. So they went on as they always had, with the possible addition of having modern-day Olympians to worship by their mindless purchase of League-branded merchandise.

Bruce wondered it was fear of one day walking the path of the Justice Lords that motivated this timidity. Or was it rather a naïve belief that, if given the chance, all people would automatically do the right thing?

In the end, the final breach involved, inevitably enough, Ra's Al-Ghul.

Bruce had _never_ believed that incredibly hyperbolic story about Talia murdering Ra's and taking over the League of Assassins. Talia was, sadly enough, too completely programmed to mindless obedience to her father to be capable of even _thinking _of finally repaying his centuries of casual and indifferent treatment of her as either a pawn or a mobile womb to bear an heir. Bruce had _never_ bought it.

However, a gut feeling is not evidence and it is not the basis for a strategy. Actual data was required and Bruce needed a way to get it. The only way to do so was to have someone on the inside in the DEMON organisation. Fortunately, Bruce had just such a potential agent.

It was hard to describe how proud he was of Cassandra Cain, Batgirl as she was then. The girl had come in leaps and bounds since she first came to his attention in the anarchy of No Man's Land. She had developed so far as a person and had done the nearly impossible in setting aside her monstrous father's programming of her mind to instead adopt the path of justice. In the costume of Batgirl, Cassie had found a meaning and direction in her life. She had even found love. Because she believed in Bruce, however, she was willing to risk all this, potentially give it all up and even to possibly lose her life.

At Bruce's request, Cassie had returned to the League of Assassins and become one of their most feared and trusted operatives. Officially, she became a renegade in Bruce's eyes, a priority to be captured and stopped at all costs. In practice, she became his eyes and ears in DEMON. It was child's play for Cassie to ingratiate herself with the nearly pitifully-naive leadership of the League. So enamoured were they of their new pet assassin that it never occurred to them that she was, in fact, a poisoned thorn thrust into the heart of their organisation. They never gave her missions anywhere near the needed scrutiny. Never once did they check to make sure that her targets had ever _actually_ been killed...

Finally came the report from Cassie that was, ultimately, the reason she was sent on this mission. The report that, in truth, Bruce had been expecting from the start. Ra's was still alive and still a poisonous spider at the centre of a web of intrigue, bluff and strategy.

With this revelation came the second, far more difficult element of Bruce's plan. Ra's was, as always, too paranoid to share his thoughts and strategies even with his new, up-and-coming Strong Right Hand as Cassie appeared to be. No, if Bruce were to know what the millennia-old megalomaniac was planning, he had to be so close to the old man that he heard his every word and thought. He needed to be _Ubu_.

It was nearly astonishing how easy Cassie found it to assassinate the current Ubu in such a way that not the slightest suspicion existed that it was anything other than an improbable fatal accident. All that was needed now was for Bruce to present himself as one of the candidates to replace Ra's's chief bodyguard and intimate attendant. However, to do this, no suspicion at all could be permitted that this candidate was, in fact, Bruce Wayne. Batman needed to _die_ and die in a way that was sufficiently unlikely and not so spectacularly public so as to seem like a deception. With the unwitting assistance of a particularly violent and pitifully predictable drugs lord in Scotland, the simulated death of the Dark Knight was achieved.

In his new identity, Bruce was able to infiltrate the DEMON organisation. His fortune and contacts made it easy to have the surgical modifications to disguise his identity and appear a man of twenty years age. The average candidate for Ubu is usually a near-mindless drone, a slightly-better-than-average thug set apart from the average DEMON foot-soldier only by their even greater fanaticism in the cult of The DEMON's Head. Compared to these, "Th'nas" was a shining star and Ra's could not possibly turn down having such a one at his side.

Of course, working with Ra's day-by-day in the most intimate terms was an extraordinarily difficult trial. Ra's was always a cruel, venal tyrant and the atrocities he casually ordered inflicted on his followers and innocents on a whim turned Bruce's stomach. However, Bruce found strength to endure. So long as Ra's ultimate plan remained unknown, Bruce needed to keep his peace for fear that the plan may be executed with unthinkable results even if the old monster were finally dead.

There were a few near-misses with exposure, Bruce acknowledged.

The first was Talia. If there was anyone who had the ability to recognise Bruce through _any_ disguise, it was Talia. She knew Bruce, her 'beloved', better than any person in the DEMON organisation. It was a testament to the quality and scale of Bruce's disguise that, despite a clear sense of _deja vu_, Talia never made the connection between the new Ubu and the supposedly-dead Detective.

The second was that, perhaps, he and Cassie had too many contacts during their time at Ra's's Nepalese compound. Ra's, paranoid and observant as he had always been, had noticed. Thankfully, the old fool, sure that the one man who he considered his near-equal was finally dead, came to the wrong conclusion. Bruce couldn't help but chuckle as he remembered Ra's loudly meditating on the possible advantages of marrying his top assassin, "Cass'ra", to his loyal and indispensable Ubu. He had to give credit to Cassie for keeping a straight face and keeping the horror out of her eyes. She, after all, didn't have the advantage Bruce had of Ubu's face-concealing ceremonial mask.

Of course, Ra's wasn't a total idiot. He knew that the remains of The Batman's organisation in Gotham could yet be a threat to him. Even without their leader, surely the Detective's apprentices knew enough about him and his ways that, as his master plan evolved, they might find some way to combat it. They needed to be neutralised. The way he chose to do it was fascinating and could possibly have been effective.

Bruce scowled as he thought of Ra's's first chosen pawn, an easily-manipulated egoist named Katherine Kane. If there had ever been a woman less-suited to the style and name 'Batwoman', he could not imagine her. Venal, self-deluding, arrogant and prone to flaunting her sexuality in a way that suggested unresolved guilt issues, the woman was never more than a distraction and a lightning rod for Dick, Barbara and Tim's ire. Far more potentially effective were the clones.

It still astonished Bruce that Ra's associates had developed the science of cloning, growth acceleration and fast-learning as far as they had. Of course, a fortune built up not over decades but _centuries _had allowed the old man to purchase the services of any number of experts. The fool had also _finally_ learnt the lesson that a willing tool was far more effective than a coerced one could ever be. He had thus allowed his research teams to operate with only minimal interference from his usual violent whims.

However, despite his grudging admiration for Ra's's finally learning some strategy, he couldn't restrain his visceral hatred for the casual _violation _of the innocent minds of the three helpless children whose creation the monster ordered. Two were clones of Stephanie Brown, Spoiler, and Jason Todd, the second Robin, based on stolen genetic material from the two originals. The third was a boy, Damien, based on a mix of Bruce's own DNA and that of Talia (and that must have pleased Ra's, although it was another of his casual brutalities that he denied Talia's desperate request to bear the cloned child naturally). The clones were programmed with facsimiles of their predecessors' memories and personalities and given a simple mission – to infiltrate the Bat Clan and do what Kane could not do: destroy it from within; to gain a position of trust and then, at a pre-arranged signal, to bring them down by hook or by crook.

It actually might have worked if it were not for Bruce's ace-in-the-hole: Catwoman.

No one had ever bothered to ask why Catwoman had suddenly become inactive a few years previously. No one had asked about the origins of her daughter, Abigail, assuming that the _Gotham Post_'s libellous rumours of a past as a prostitute or a torrid romance with the son of a fourth-rate private detective was true. In fact, Selina had long tired of living a criminal life. It had never been more than an elaborate attempt to stave off boredom and somehow find again the security that had been lost when her parents died in a tragically random car accident. However, she had skills that were second to none in the field of security. Both Wayne Industries and, more importantly, Batman's organisation needed those skills. Selina was more than willing to accept a way out of criminality and the chance to start again when it was offered.

If, along the way, Selina had come to fill a hole in Bruce's emotional life and he in hers, well, that was _their _business and was not truly relevant to their professional relationship.

Selina had been Bruce's agent in Gotham from the moment of his presumed 'death'. As much as it pained him to manipulate Dick, Barbara and Tim, the more people who were aware of his plan, the more chance there was of a fatal security breach. It was Selina who marginalised Kane and then set about deprogramming the clones. The work was absolutely and stunningly successful with young Stephanie and Damien, who embraced the closeness of the Bat Family and were more than willing to train with Dick and Tim as the new Batgirl and Robin. Selina's cunning was more than equal to the task of convincing the two youngsters that their pre-programmed story of Stephanie's cryogenic suspension on the point of death, revival after Ra's's surgeons had repaired her terminal injuries and subsequent escape from Nepal with Damien's help had been accepted without question. With Selina's subtle direction and encouragement, Oracle was able to user her skill with audio-visual computer technology to identify the hypnotically-implanted triggers and neutralise them.

Their work was far less successful with the clone of Jason. The bitterness and alienation that was characteristic of the imposed memories of Jason Todd, combined with the DEMON programming as an assassin and saboteur, sent him into a deep, dark depression to which he responded by turning to borderline criminality as The Red Hood. Bruce intended to catch the boy one day, if only to ensure that his DEMON mental programming was never accidentally activated.

Meanwhile, at last, Ra's master plan was beginning to take shape. Bruce grudgingly admitted to being impressed. What was the single biggest flaw in all his plans to date? He used broadly criminal and forcible means to achieve his goals. Bruce didn't know when the old pseudo-immortal had finally realised how self-defeating these means were but, having learnt his lesson, he was applying it to a new master plan with the skill of a virtuoso.

If there was one thing that he knew, the Justice League, for all its power, would _never _act against a 'legitimate' or 'legally elected' government, no matter how tenuous or laughable those claims to legitimacy or legality. Nor would they act against a 'legitimate' religion, no matter how vile its creed or godless its ceremonies. Ra's had realised that everything was there for the taking without out risking the slightest resistance from the Earth's so-called 'mightiest heroes'. All that was needed was patience and time, something that he had in abundance.

Ra's had already identified his first target. All that he needed to do was to provoke a revolution against a sickeningly corrupt and violent dictator and sweep into power as the 'great liberator' of the oppressed masses. From a secure and internationally-recognised power base, he would then be able to begin with the second phase of his plans. He would use the long-perfected means of indoctrination that had turned him into nigh-on a god to the cultists of his DEMON organisation on the population of his new country. He would then send out missionaries to surrounding nations, many of them as corrupt and failing as his initial target. Eventually, this growing religion would be in the position to start violent uprisings. As the wise leader of the faith of the disaffected populations, he would, of course, be in a perfect position to come as mediator and peace-maker. It would be simple enough to impose his own agents on the governments of these other countries as part of a 'power-sharing' deal, effectively taking control of them. So it would be that, nation by nation, Asia would be united under the banner of DEMON.

Oh, there would be violence and those who would not be indoctrinated, Ra's knew that. Nonetheless, he had the protection of 'international recognition' and 'legitimacy'. No other country would _officially_ aid these hopeless hold-outs and he was confident that they could be manipulated into being self-defeating. It was even possible, and here Ra's had to laugh as he regaled Ubu with this proof of his genius, that he might even be able to persuade the Justice League to assist his forces in 'keeping the peace' and arresting the 'foul anarchists' who threatened the peace of his empire. Even if they refused, he knew that they would remain neutral and that was all he really required.

With a continent-sized power base and a population of billions on his side, it would be child's play for Ra's to move on to either convert or conquer every other nation. Environmental disasters would be manufactured, plagues released and wars provoked. Before anyone realised who was the architect of these seemingly-unrelated catastrophes, it would be too late. The DEMON's Head, the master of the last government on Earth with any significant level of functionality, would kindly and paternally offer assistance in restoring order and essential services. Before anyone knew what was happening, the world would wake up to realise it was effectively ruled by DEMON, reliant on Ra's's largesse for their continued existence. It was probably be at that time that the so-called 'heroes' would finally respond, along with the tattered remains of his rival rulers. By that point, it would be simple to portray them as traitors, anarchists and monsters seeking to impose their will on the peaceful commonwealth of humankind. The battle would doubtless be destructive, but the outcome would not be in doubt.

Bruce had to admit that it was a fine plan, one worthy of a master-strategist. However, it all hung on one immense vulnerability – that no one realise what was happening until Ra's was in a position to present himself as the legitimate ruler of tens of millions, fighting to defend his people's peace and prosperity against malcontents seeking to impose their own rule. It assumed that there was not an enemy already at the heart of his organisation.

Of course, against a strategy of this scale, it was necessary to apply a counter-strategy of his own. Ra's had to be led to his own destruction in a way that the man believed that he was taking those steps of his own free will. Through Cassie and Selina, it was possible to arrange confrontations with Dick and Tim and their friends in the Titans that convinced Ra's that he had the upper hand and that the Bat Family was in disarray. The old man never realised that he was being directed along a path and time-table of another's construction. Win or lose, every confrontation moved Ra's towards a trap.

One of the problems faced by any paranoid absolute ruler is that he very rarely is aware of what is _really_ happening in his empire. He knows only of what his most trusted subordinates _want_ him to know. And the most trusted subordinates in DEMON right now were Cass'ra and Ubu.

Bruce sighed. He was _truly_ sorry for what had happened to Talia. She had been a victim, tool and pawn so many times and had never once moved to free herself. It was possible that she didn't even understand the _concept_ of being free of her father's total control, even in the most abstract of ways. She was the only one smart enough and loyal enough to her father to realise what was happening and _stupid enough_ to dare accuse his loyal Strong Left and Right Hands to his face. There was no question of being able to bribe or manipulate her into silence.

Bruce revealed himself to her and gave her the opportunity to either flee her father's service or end her own life on her own terms and with all the dignity she required. Naturally, she declined his offer. Talia really was an amazingly _heroic_ personality, for all she had a bizarre, romantic approach to the world. Did she _really _think that Bruce would have casually confronted her and given the opportunity to run through the one unsecured exit in the room? Cassie was waiting. He had no reason to doubt the young woman's assurance that Talia's end was essentially instantaneous and utterly painless.

It was simple enough to simulate Talia's suicide. Although the al-Ghul family's long-extinct culture had no equivalent of a 'suicide note', Bruce had previously gone to the trouble of forging poetry in Talia's handwriting mourning her "Beloved's" death and expressing her heartbreak of never once holding "their" child (Damien) to her breast. Ra's was distracted and, frankly, didn't care too much, being too close to his ultimate goal to worry about Talia, who had been a waning star in his organisation since her disastrous tenure as the CEO of LexCorp. Ubu's report on her tragic death was accepted without question. Ra's idly informed his bodyguard that he was already working on using his cloning science to make an heir more to his standards.

Then the day at last came when Ra's made his move. For a short time, between his departing Nepal and his arrival at 'his' new capital, he would be a revolutionary and a former terrorist leader involving himself in another nation's insurrection rather than a national leader in his own right. This left a vulnerable window when Bruce could move in an environment when he and Cassie were Ra's's only significant protection and in a territory where their escape would be easy.

Things would likely have gone off without a hitch. However, Bruce remembered the truism that _no battle plan survives contact with the enemy_. So he already had some flexibility in place when Ra's, in a late wrinkle, decided _to involve the Justice League_. Ra's had identified the same vulnerability that Bruce had done and had attempted to mitigate this by having his agents in the sitting tyrant's government make conditions in the country even harsher. The League, predictably, wouldn't move against the government or even the local-level bullies, but they _did_ deign to engage in 'peacekeeping' operations to prevent 'misunderstandings' between the security forces and the ordinary people. Ra's had calculated that, when his revolution began, the League would be just sympathetic enough to the cause of 'the people' that they would ensure that their mysterious leader reached the capital unharmed. Only then, with Ra's in the presidential palace and addressing his new nation, would they realise who it was behind events. By then it would be too late, Ra's agents would have already ensured that enough international approval had been given for the uprising that the League would be stymied by its own rules.

The time had come to inform Dick, Barbara, Tim, Stephanie and Damien that Bruce was still alive. Informed of the truth by Selina and realising that the current situation was too dangerous to spend time debating the ethics of his plan, the Bat Family moved at once. Accompanied by their associates of two generations of The Titans (whose unquestioning faith in their kin and mentors Tim and Dick had been unknowingly undermining for years), they reached the imperilled country just in time to carry out their role – _to prevent the Justice League from interfering_. As Ra's had predicted, Diana and Clark had convinced the rest of the League to ensure "a smooth transfer of power with a minimum of violence" and were ensuring that the dictator's forces were neutralised and unable to interfere with the rebels' march to the capital. Naturally, when the native groups of insurrectionists, clued in by two mysterious informants to the impending attempt by Ra's to subvert their uprising, turned on their DEMON 'advisers', they tried to "ensure that the rebel leadership could maintain order". Fortunately, the Bat Family, the Titans, and the Wayne Protocols, were more than able to keep them out of the fight.

In the resulting chaos, as the DEMON army, scattered through dozens of cells, was obliterated, it fell to "Cass'ra" and "Ubu" to evacuate Ra's. Alone and reliant purely on his two Strong Hands, Ra's was more vulnerable than he had been in centuries. Bruce did not intend to allow this opportunity to go to waste. Cassie later told him that she felt his solution, tying the raving old megalomaniac to a nuclear bomb and dropping the resulting package into the Lazarus Pit, was "extreme but effective".

It was then just a matter to show the League how completely they had been fooled, to the point that they had been fighting to assist a fanatic religious terrorist in turning a native population's uprising against tyranny into his taking control of their country. Bruce wasn't even slightly surprised when Diana arrested him and informed him that the League would have a disciplinary hearing to judge his fate.

_To be continued…_


	2. Breaking the League

**Batman – The War Begins**

By BenRG

**Disclaimer**

Batman, the characters of the Batman and the Justice League universes are the property of DC Comics and its owners. This is a not-for-profit fan work for free distribution through the world-wide web. The author and distributor make no claim of ownership

**Author's Notes**

First and foremost, this story emerged from some thinking that I did about whether or not Batman really fit in with the Justice League and its philosophy. It also includes some aspects of my thinking of how one could salvage the DC comics' Batman continuity, despite some of the more _eccentric_ recent meta-plot developments without a total reboot.

This story exists in a similar fanon universe as my Teen Titans story 'Futures'. Although there are some differences, it has common characters and the same relationships.

I don't necessarily endorse any of the opinions given by Bruce or any other members of the League in this chapter. They're merely what I think the characters would say in the situation, given the events recalled in Chapter 1.

This whole confrontation was written backwards from the question of: "What would make Batman want to disband the League?" There have been, even its most determined supporters must admit, some particularly terrible failures and missteps over the years and I wondered: "_At what point would enough be enough? Also, what might be the underlying problem?_"

**Censor: T** – Not for the younger ones

* * *

**Chapter 2 – Breaking the League**

Bruce actually _enjoyed _the hearing. Diana was borderline-hysterical, accusing Bruce, in a rant that lasted nearly one and a half hours, of playing god with that unfortunate country's fate as a side-show to his plot to murder Ra's Al-Ghul. Clark did not get so visibly or volubly upset, but Bruce knew the Kansas Boy Scout well enough to know that he was horribly disappointed that Bruce had used lethal force against the old monster.

Bruce pointed out that the practical upshot of his actions was that the native population of that benighted country were now in the position to determine their own fate instead of becoming the mind-controlled slaves of a man who had previously made completely clear his intent to 'cull' the human race back to a 'manageable' size. He also pointed out that the League had been willing, if unwitting, dupes to that end, having clearly preferred the 'order' offered by an unidentified leader of debatable legitimacy over the collective will of those people. All Bruce ultimately had done was prevent _any_ external interference in recent events.

As for the execution of Ra's Al-Ghul, Bruce pointed out that the man was the head of a fanatical religion dedicated to doing his will. The concept that any court would be able to try a man who was not the citizen of any country or that any prison could hope to hold him was laughable. Ra's had attempted to commit mass-murder on a global scale on innumerable occasions and would attempt to do so again. Thanks to the Lazarus Pit, he could recover from _any _injury. The only way to eliminate his threat in a way that was guaranteed to be permanent was to destroy both the Pit and him completely.

* * *

J'onn J'onzz leaned forward and looked at Bruce levelly. "Batman, you claim to have had evidence of a large-scale threat to the security of the world. Why did you not come to the League with this evidence rather than proceed with this risky and ethically dubious 'lone wolf' effort of yours?"

Bruce considered the Martian Manhunter thoughtfully. In previous debates, J'onn had always been the neutral and the tie-breaker between the idealistic Superman, Flash and Wonder Woman and the more pragmatic and cynical Batman, Hawkgirl and Green Lantern. He wondered how many of the Martian's words now were entirely his own and how many were those he was speaking rather than allow Diana to descend into another rant. "Would you have done anything? Anything efficacious anyway?" Bruce countered at last without a hint of apology in his tone. "No matter how many times Ra's was knocked back, he would have tried again and we might not have had the early warning we had this time. We would have had to be lucky _every time _and he only would have had to be lucky _once_."

"You didn't trust us," Clark said sadly.

Bruce shook his head. "I didn't believe that you could have acted quickly enough and with sufficient... _resolution_... to utilise the intelligence I gathered. I thought it more likely that you would spend an age in a committee, debating the ethics of my actions and the actions of my agent taken to gather the intelligence rather than deal with the issue in hand; much as you are now." Clark, Diana and J'onn shifted uncomfortably at that clear accusation.

"That's another thing," Diana finally said, glaring at Bruce. "Your agent played the role of an assassin a bit _too _well! Are you going to hand her over to...?"

"You will find that Cassandra may not have committed as many crimes as you think, Princess," Bruce replied coldly. "In any case, what she did was in order to infiltrate the DEMON organisation and, as you now know, to prevent the slow-motion conquest of the entire world that would have likely have resulted in billions of deaths. I believe that makes what she did definable as an 'act of war'."

"That isn't your call to make, Bruce! She needs to be held to account for...!"

"Batwoman is not answerable to you, Princess. To her conscience, certainly, and to her peers, perhaps; not ever to _you_." Bruce actually surprised himself with the new name he had just given to Cassie Cain. He also surprised himself by realising that the loyal, courageous and resolute young woman was indeed, in his estimation, head and shoulders above the Amazon noblewoman, who was increasingly acting as if she had some kind of inherit authority over the rest of the League. "She took on a role that was utterly repugnant to her in order to protect the world, Wonder Woman. Would _you_ be able to do the same?"

Diana seemed stupefied by Bruce's sudden turning the accusation around to her and the rest of the League. She looked helplessly at Clark, who looked up from his notes to gaze levelly at Bruce. Bruce couldn't help but wonder what his old friend was seeing. Finally, the last son of Krypton spoke. "Bruce, do you believe that you did the right thing?"

Bruce sighed. Clark was a good man and tearing down his illusions was never pleasurable. "Clark... under the circumstances, I could see no other _viable _course of action. If I had any hope that we could have resolved this in another manner, don't you think I would have chosen that, rather than tear Cassie away from her home-town, life and boyfriend? Rather than make my own _family _believe that I was either dead or a hopelessly drug-addicted amnesiac somewhere in Europe? Consider this: Those people are now _free_ to choose their own path forwards. I prevented a known malignant tyrant from utilising their desire for freedom to enslave them. I also made sure that his reign of murder and corruption would finally come to a permanent end."

Bruce considered his next words carefully and, judging them to be truthful, spoke. "'Right thing'? No. I am not so deluded as to say that. However, I will certainly say 'the necessary thing'. Quite possibly also 'the only thing'."

The vote by the full League, almost all the over 110 members, was nowhere near as close as Bruce expected. By a margin of nearly 30 votes, Bruce was cleared of gross misconduct. Instead the lesser secondary option, proposed by John Stuart, Green Lantern, was accepted by a significant margin. A reprimand was entered on Bruce's record for using 'excessive force' with a mitigating note that the League had deemed that there may have been no other executable strategy that would have permanently removed the threat of Ra's Al-Ghul.

When Shayera, acting as foreman, read out the acquittal vote, Bruce thought that Diana would explode, based on the fiery look of fury on her bright red face. Clark looked like he had just been punched with a kryptonite knuckle-duster and J'onn's face was unreadable.

"Very well," Diana growled, holding her head in her hands as if she were trying to stop it from exploding. "Bruce, as a result of this, I'm recommending that your League membership be suspended indefinitely until such time as we, your peers, believe that you can be trusted to act in accord with the League Charter." The Amazon stood up and pointed a trembling finger at Batman. "Additionally, should your suspension ever be lifted, your status will remain as a restricted auxiliary member until such time as you hand over Cassandra Cain, aka Batgirl, to the Nepalese authorities to stand trial for the murder of Talia Al-Ghul. Furthermore..."

"Hold on there, Diana," John interrupted. "The gross misconduct charge was voted down, remember? Maybe he went over the line in the levels of force he was willing to use but I for one don't think that he had many alternatives, if any at all, given the number of times that monster had tried to commit genocide before!"

Diana opened her mouth to respond but Eel O'Brien, Plastic Man, interrupted. "Lantern's right, Princess. Bats did the right thing whilst the rest of us sat around letting Ra's play us for _suckers_! The only reason that creep isn't on the path to becoming some kind of _God-Emperor_ is because Bats saw through his scheme and stopped him cold! Deal with it!" There were mutters of agreement from several parts of the main meeting hall on the Watchtower.

Diana was shocked that the meeting was running away from her. She was used to her, Clark and, occasionally, Bruce setting the agenda and everyone going along with it to a greater or lesser extent. "There has to be some kind of consequences..." she began to protest, waving her arms in agitation.

"Cassandra is not a member of the League and the Titans are outside our authority," John reminded her. "It'll be up to them to decide if she needs to be reprimanded or handed over the authorities. However, given that they sided with Batman to prevent us from interfering with recent events, I suspect that they will be pretty forgiving, especially considering what she helped prevent." John raised a hand before Clark could say anything and turned to Bruce. "Batman, I'm presuming that Batwoman will be formally re-joining your organisation?"

Bruce nodded solemnly, grateful to the former Marine for his giving Cassie the respect of using the codename that Bruce just now realised that she had earned. "If she wishes to take up her role in Gotham, yes. If she wishes to retire from active duty after her… _recent experiences_, I would be more than understanding of her feelings."

The Green Lantern of Earth's home sector leaned forwards. "So, I can presume that you will be monitoring her conduct and ensuring that she hasn't developed a taste for using lethal force?"

"She is more than well aware of my views on killing," Batman said. "I assure you that if she cannot abide by these, I will deal with her myself."

"You weren't so hard on yourself," Diana snarked bitterly as she slumped back down into her chair.

"Don't presume that I did what I did lightly, Princess," Bruce responded. "I will have to live with what happened on that mission, especially to Talia, on my conscience for the rest of my life. Don't think that is something that I will be able to easily cast aside."

"So," John said, taking charge again, "we have Batman and the Titans monitoring Batwoman's conduct. I don't think that we can have any concerns about her running out of control. However, I suspect that we are underestimating her level of professionalism." The implication that 'we' meant 'Wonder Woman' was clear and Diana visibly seethed.

"Does anyone have any objections to Green Lantern's proposal?" J'onn asked before Diana could think up anything else to say. Bruce watched Wonder Woman's face twisting in anger as she realised that she was in a minority of one (or possibly two but that Superman wasn't going to say anything).

"Very well," Diana snapped. "If this is the League's will, then the matter is closed." The black-haired woman turned her blue eyes, blazing with rage and betrayal, towards Bruce. "However, _Batman_, don't think that you still enjoy _my_ confidence. My trust, when lost, takes a lot to earn back." The Amazon woman sat up straighter. "If there is no other business, then I declare this extraordinary meeting of the Justice League cl..."

"I have one other item of business," Bruce declared. Diana scowled but nodded to him. As he was not suspended or under any other kind of sanction or discipline, Bruce's right to propose or vote was unrestricted. "I hereby move that, effective immediately, that the Justice League be _permanently dissolved_."

_That_ created an uproar. Shouts of denial and shock were coming in from all directions. Clark looked like he had caught his mother having sex with Lex Luthor. _Diana_ looked like she had just been blindsided by Darkseid. Even the easy-going Wally West, the Flash, was astonished. Bruce kept his face an icy, indifferent mask. "ORDER!" J'onn roared. "The motion for dissolution..."

"Is _completely out of order_!" Diana shrieked, leaping to her feet, trembling from head to toe. "Batman is barely this side of being a _renegade_! He has only just avoided dismissal from this League for _murder_ by deploying the most dubious _oratory _and _technicalities_! Despite this, you are seriously considering his suggestion that we _dissolve_ probably the only body that can reign in him and his army of vigilantes _including some of our own misled kin and friends _that he turned on us not even a day before?"

"Diana," Clark said, touching her hand. "Let J'onn speak." Diana sucked in a deep breath and sat back down with a reluctant nod.

J'onn nodded to Superman in thanks and took a moment to gather his thoughts. "As I was saying, the procedure for a motion for dissolution is clearly set out in the League's charter. It will require 67% approval to pass, after a full debate. First, the motion must be seconded. Is there anyone who wishes to second Batman's motion on this matter?"

There was silence. Bruce had no problem with that. His decision had already been made. The League was so ineffective that it had become a joke. If it continued to exist, he would have no part of it.

Diana looked astonishingly smug for a grown woman. "As no one seconds, then the motion is struck..."

"I second the motion!" Every eye in the room centred on Arthur Curry, Orin, Aquaman.

"As do I!" Eyes jumped to Oliver Queen, Green Arrow.

"Ollie?" Clark blurted as he stared in disbelieving horror at his oldest friend in the League; someone he knew and worked with _before_ the League was even thought of, before he was even _Superman_.

"Sorry, Boy Scout," Ollie said. "Bats is right though. Something has gone seriously wrong with this team and I'm not convinced that it can be fixed without drastic means."

Diana looked thunderstruck, covering her mouth as if she were ready to start vomiting. Bruce felt like an utter heel as he saw the look of utter, heart-broken betrayal and horror on the woman's face. Once he and Diana... Well, it could have been great but, ultimately, their world-views and methods were too different. Even so, Bruce regarded ripping the foundations of her world out from underneath her as a distasteful necessity, no more.

It fell to J'onn to take charge. "Batman, the charter gives you fifteen minutes to outline the grounds for your proposal. I will then open the floor to any members who wish to support or rebut your case as well as make their own."

Bruce stood to speak as convention demanded. He didn't need fifteen minutes. Unlike Diana and, on occasion, Arthur, he was not in the habit of making endless speeches in an attempt to impress others (Diana's accusation of getting a reprieve based on dubious oratory was offensive as well as slanderous!). Communication was something best handled succinctly and accurately.

Bruce began by acknowledging that the League was a noble and worthwhile experiment. There was indeed an argument to be made that costumed heroes could achieve better results and combat large-scale threats more effectively if they worked in a large, organised group. He reminded the meeting that he was one of the Founding Seven of the League and that it was his own desire to test this proposition that led him, a self-confessed loner at best, to join the group.

It was not Bruce's argument that the League itself was a mistake from the outset. Rather, it was that time and actual empirical, operational experience had proven that its founding premise was incorrect. There was _no _great benefit to be gained from forming a large, organised group of costumed adventurers. Indeed, Bruce argued, the League had proven that such an organisation actually _inhibited_ their effectiveness. The League's very strong rules against interfering with government and local laws were written with the desire to prevent a 'Justice Lords'-style scenario, where League members attempted to take dictatorial powers. In practice, they simply meant that certain threats could not be countered until they reached an arbitrary limit where there was no doubt in anyone's mind, inside the League or outside, that extreme measures were necessary. Unfortunately, by that point, the situation was usually at such a level that no simple, certain and relatively non-violent counter-measures could be enacted.

"So, what are you suggesting, Bruce? That the League was wrong to enact those bylaws?" Diana shook her head. "By the gods! I thought that the Justice Lords would have been proof enough of their necessity!"

Bruce looked at Diana levelly. Technically, by interrupting his opening statement, she was in violation of the rules. However, he adjudged her question relevant. "The Justice Lords' mistake was not to act against criminals and corrupt tyrants, Diana. Their mistake, their _crime_, was to assume, and this is a dangerous assumption for any human to make, that they and they alone had the power and right to assess good and evil, right and wrong, worth and worthlessness."

"And you don't do the same thing on a regular basis?" she snapped. "I seem to recall one of us had the saying: 'I am Vengeance, I am Justice'!"

"You will note that I place those whom I fight at the mercy of the court system, no matter how ineffective that can sometimes be. You will also note that my definition of 'crime' is that reflected by natural justice, not the whims of lawyers or my own personal scale of right and wrong. The Justice Lords were absolute tyrants, ruling on a whim. That is something that I do not do and never would propose."

J'onn cleared his throat. "Thank you for that indulgence, Batman. Wonder Woman, the floor is not yet open for interruptions and counter-points. Please restrain yourself until Batman completes his opening statement or I will rule you out of order." Diana visibly bristled but did not object. Bruce nodded at the Martian Manhunter and continued.

Bruce continued by emphasising that his reasons for his motion were not distaste for co-operation. Co-operation was good, necessary and constructive. He noted that he made a policy of sharing intelligence with the relevant hero even before the League existed. No, his point was that the League's structures were unnecessarily restrictive and had simply gathered Earth's heroes into a single group that magnified each other's vulnerabilities by giving foes a single organisation and location to target. Worse, the League's priorities were often actively destructive to the grass-roots work of crime-fighting and life-saving. "All of us have 'home territories', if you will, areas that are of particular interest to us. How many of us can honestly say that the League has not required us to abandon investigations and active situations there in order to assist the League in some grand show of support for some cause? At some point, the word 'Justice' seems to have been forgotten in favour of being some kind of international political campaign tool."

"Bruce, you can't say that promoting famine relief work isn't worthwhile!" Clark protested, appalled.

"What I'm saying, Clark, is that for those of us not able to fly at hypersonic speeds at will, they are a distraction and something for which we can offer very little useful assistance at the front line."

"Even those of us who _can_ move at hypersonic speeds don't always have the ability to hear someone in trouble on the other side of the world!" Wally remarked, something that earned a grim nod of agreement from Galaetia, Power Girl.

There was no rebuttal for such a profound if unwelcome truth. Not even Superman could be in two places at once, something that he had learned to his great personal grief. Bruce decided that the time had come to offer his conclusion. "The League, as I said, was a grand, necessary and noble experiment. It has also proven to be a _failed_ experiment. A failure not of concept but of _execution_. Organisation of the kind that was deemed necessary to allow us to operate on the largest scales has served only to prevent us from carrying out the necessary work of protecting people at street level. It has prevented us from moving against corruption because of our need to seem legitimate on the world political stage. Being a _League_ seems to have prevented us from offering _Justice_, except in the most extraordinary of circumstances.

"I feel that the time has come to dissolve this League and return to that grass-roots work that I say is far more important and effective in the long-term to making the ordinary person's life better. The time has come for us to reject the mantle of modern-day demigods and icons and become, once again, the humble, sometimes-invisible and nameless champions and protectors of our people."

Bruce sat down and J'onn asked for any rebuttals. Surprisingly, Clark didn't respond. However Diana and, interestingly, Billy Bateson, Captain Marvel, jumped to their feet.

Diana's response was a diatribe that bordered on a rant. What it boiled down to was that the most important role for them was to offer an example of good conduct and righteousness that people could aspire to. She argued that crime was a social problem that was more due to lack of belief in good than anything else.

"And being photographed shaking hands with the politico of the month does anything to change this, Diana?" was Shayera's scornful question.

"My point is that if we can influence people at the highest level..."

"The point is that we _don't_," Mari McCabe, Vixen, interrupted. "Take it from me," the African heroine continued, "the good ones don't need much extra reason to do good and no amount of handshaking and positive press will influence the bad ones. The only thing they understand is power and the threat of losing it."

"We can't judge who rules and who doesn't!" Clark insisted, sounding frustrated.

"Agreed," Arthur shot in. "Nonetheless, we have to accept that those in power do not often respond to diplomacy when they are set on a destructive or selfish course. The only stay on their actions is then the threat of the removal of their power, either forcible or peaceful."

"And the peaceful means, if possible, require that the ordinary man and woman believe that there is such a thing as a better choice," Bruce growled, getting everyone's attention. "They need to believe that criminal scum do not always end up on top and that there are consequences if someone acts illegally for their own benefit. That, I argue, requires grass-roots action, working down amongst them rather than acting like a part of the same remote, unaccountable ruling class that they view so cynically."

"I can't believe that you have come to believe that we have achieved so little," Diana responded, sounding frustrated. "Only this summer we helped set up those relief camps in Mongolia...!"

"We've done a lot of good, it's true, Diana," Dinah Lance, Black Canary, announced. "We've saved lives and stopped aliens but..." The blonde woman gestured. "How much have we _changed_? We're just actin' like Band-Aids, Diana. We fix the wound when it's visible but we're not fixing the sharp edges that cause the wounds!"

Captain Marvel, stood next and firmly spoke in defence of the League as a potential tool for good. It was his argument that attempting to stem the tide of crime at the 'coal face' as he put it was futile. There were too many incidents and not enough troops. He added that those who doubted the power of a fine example and public moral stance to alter society by changing aspirations did so because they were in themselves such amoral and ambiguous figures that they could never hope to encourage people onto a path of good and light. Here he glared at Bruce in a way that bordered on the openly accusing.

Bruce did not choose to respond to the deliberate and clumsy attempt to provoke him. Ollie, however, had no such scruples. "Big talk, oh Merlin's chosen," the archer said. "However, not all of us are blessed with god-like powers and many of us, maybe even most of us, operate best on an individual-to-individual level."

"Maybe you should get out of the kitchen if you can't take the heat, Queen," Bateson shot back. "Leave the work of fixing the world to the _adults _whilst you play out your Robin Hood fantasy!" Ollie didn't react to the big metahuman's put-down other than to laugh derisively and turn to look at his wife, Dinah, and caress her face. Bruce approved. Ollie and Dinah had a decade of experience as heroes over Bateson and had nothing to justify to him. If anything, Bateson had to prove that he had any real right to offer an opinion, given that he was really just a magically-empowered late teen.

"Captain Marvel, there is no place for crude, personal insults in this council," J'onn said levelly. Bateson glared at the Martian but, when there was no sign that J'onn would back down, nodded sharply and sat down, glowering to himself, elbows on the table and hands steepled before his face. Notably, he offered no apology to either Bruce or Ollie.

"I think the question we need to ask," J'onn suddenly announced, "is not: 'Where is the least harm?' but 'Where is the most good?' Batman's motion stands on the concept that this League has failed to bring justice because, in terms of Earthly affairs, it is little more than a _political campaign group_, no more or less effective in achieving its core objectives than any other celebrity-supported lobbying effort. Rather, or so I understand the argument, more long-term effect can be obtained by seeking to change people on the individual or near-individual level."

"Where do you stand on this, J'onn?" Shayera asked.

"On Mars I was a policeman," J'onn responded. "Like any sentient race, we had our monsters and our corrupt politicians. I can say this much: There is _always_ another corrupt politician and another monster. I have found that the only way to stem the flow of replacements is by catching them when they are still small. The stronger the rule of law is at what Batman refers to as the 'grass roots' level, the fewer genuinely destructive personalities reach the highest level and the greater the general trend towards constructive and progressive policies." There were several thoughtful nods in response.

Arthur stood up next. "Atlantis was once a myriad warring city-states," he recalled. "We were only united after efforts were made at the level of the ordinary merman and merwoman to encourage peace and co-operation. We had to ensure that there was enough sustenance and security that people didn't need to look at their neighbour with envious eyes but rather considered how they could work _with_ them instead. I can't say if Bruce's thesis that we need to root out crime at the level of the individual neighbourhood to change society is workable. What I _do _know is that no king, no philosopher, no prince and no prophet can make the world peaceful unless the people feel _safe _for it to be peaceful."

"In some ways, you have an unfair advantage over us, Diana," Dr. Fate announced, the arch-mage's unearthly voice echoing from behind his mystically-sealed helmet. Diana raised her eyebrows in surprise. "The Amazons have been at peace within themselves for over three thousand years and crime and deprivation has been virtually eliminated, due to rigorous monitoring at the clan and extended family level. In such an environment, the process of leadership by example that you advocate is highly effectual as people have the leisure to consider the bigger picture. Here in the Patriarch's inheritance, things are not so stable; People tend to view rulers cynically as the actions of rulers rarely have a great impact on ordinary lives other in the most exceptional of situations."

"Look, this is crazy," Superman said. "I hear what you're all saying and I agree that we cannot and _must_ not ignore the concerns of people at the level of homes, streets and neighbourhoods. What the League lets us do is create a single unified message of constructive efforts. 'Look: This is what we can be if we try!'"

"Exactly," Billy agreed. "Give 'em a high target and some flashy visuals to aim for! Ambition is more effective the more spectacular the goal!"

"The thing about the stars, Sparky," Eel said sarcastically, "is that people rarely try to reach for them because they're so far away." The red-and-white clad magical metahuman was about to rebut Plastic Man's cynicism when the reformed petty crook continued. "The way I see it is we need to give people things they can _see_ and _touch_. Gangs off the streets; Pushers in jail; Racketeers out of business. When people find it is safe, they'll start building. They'll _want_ to do it, so long as we make it possible."

"Think about this," Ollie said thoughtfully. "What was one of the biggest threats that the League has ever faced? Lex Luthor. _President_ Lex Luthor, who was the legally-elected head-of-state of the United States. He set Cadmus onto the path to the Ultimen Project. He was a criminal: a racketeer, a thief and a murderer. We couldn't move against him because he was 'legitimate', until he suddenly went berserk and tried to murder Bats and Boy Scout. Why was Luthor elected, even though everyone and his uncle knew he was bad news? He promised jobs, security, law and order. That's what people want and by telling the same lie, tyrant after tyrant has gained power. If people _had _those necessities, then those at the top wouldn't be able to tell such easy lies to get power!"

"Listen to me," Diana said. "I've listened to you all and gods know that I agree with many of your points. My key argument is that Bruce is _wrong _to say that the League cannot do any real good because of the level at which it works. By offering a shining, public example of good and righteousness, we give people hope. We give people an ideal towards which to strive. We remind people that, yes, there _is_ good and order in the universe!"

"We remind them that all is watched over by the gods," Arthur said blandly.

"Yes! No! What...?" Diana looked at the King of Atlantis in confusion.

Arthur continued, his expression thoughtful. "That's one of the biggest problems, Diana. People expect the 'gods', be it politicians, prophets or superheroes, to solve their problems for them, instead of being encouraged to do so themselves. It's one of the biggest problems that I face – to get my regional governors and communal elders to take the initiative and build rather than wait for me to micromanage away their problems for them. I've found that the easiest way to do that is to provide a secure environment and allow local-level pressures to force their hands."

Diana sighed and rubbed at her eyes in exhaustion. "We _need _to be a public face of justice and order," she pleaded. "People _need_ to see that there is someone on guard. Yes, Arthur, _let _them see us as gods if they must! However, let us be _seen_. Bruce, I am more than willing to re-organise our duty schedules to give greater priority to tackling grass-roots problems like crime and corruption in public office. Nonetheless, we _must _remain united or we will end up working at cross-purposes and destroying whatever little progress that we can make!" The Amazon pulled in a deep breath. She was no fool and she realised now that she was swimming against the current. She wondered how she could have missed this stirring discontent with how the League was operating before. She swore to fix it if she could but first she had to save the League itself! "Bruce, _please_! In the name of all that is right and good! In the name of justice and for the sake of all the _good _we have done, that we _still_ can do...! Please, Bruce! Please, I _beg _of you! Name your terms but _withdraw your motion_!"

Bruce did not reply for a long time. Then, exerting a great effort to put all the sympathy and apology that he could in his voice and body language, he spoke. "I'm sorry, Little Princess." Diana's face paled and then her eyes darkened with anger and a hopelessness that Bruce hadn't seen since the day they had found Themyscira in ruins and the Amazon nation all petrified.

J'onn nodded gravely. "The motion stands before this meeting," he said. "If no one else has any points to make..."

"What of those who aren't here?" Zatanna suddenly interrupted. "I've noticed a few missing faces..."

"Let those who could not stir themselves to attend an emergency meeting called in the face of a _crisis_ abide by the decision of those who remembered their responsibilities," Arthur growled, something that drew several fierce declarations of support.

"The motion stands," J'onn continued as if he hadn't been interrupted, "and now must be voted upon. There can be no abstentions from this ballot. Simply press any voting button on your handset to vote 'aye' to Batman's motion of dissolution of the Justice League."

The computerised voting system created by Oracle gave everyone one minute to decide on an answer. To prevent a 'vote with the majority' psychology from developing, the results would not be shown until the end of that time. As the minute slowly passed with a nearly unbearable slowness, Diana's already pale face became bloodless, nearly wizened. Her lips threatened to turn blue and Bruce genuinely feared that she would suffer some kind of heart seizure from anoxia before the result was announced.

The minute ended.

The result was neither overwhelming nor close. Of the 103 members of the League present, 72 had voted in favour of Bruce's motion of dissolution. The necessary 67% margin was met but not by a spectacular majority.

Without any visible emotion, J'onn read out the result and, as the last ever chair of a meeting of this incarnation of the Justice League, declared the meeting permanently adjourned.

Diana collapsed forward onto the table, weeping silently onto her folded arms. Clark touched her shoulder and squeezed in a clumsy act of sympathy. There was silence at first, shock and disbelief written on almost every face. Bruce wondered if even many of those who had voted with him had genuinely expected to be in the minority. Well, it was too late to turn back now.

At last, people started to stand and shake hands in farewell. A few of the female heroes had suspiciously wet eyes as they embraced each other. It was as if, somehow, they feared that they would never meet again, as ridiculous as that was. Captain Marvel stood up and, after shooting Bruce a blistering look of murderous hatred and despite, stormed from the room. Slowly, one by one and occasionally in groups, the assembled heroes began to drift away.

"Please!" Diana suddenly shouted, catching everyone's attention. "Do not act so hastily! We can still do so much good! What we can do together far outweighs what we can each do alone! I beg of you, _don't do this_!"

"It is done, Princess," Batman announced, appearing at her shoulder, making the suddenly very small-seeming Amazon woman jump in surprise. There was genuine sympathy in his expression. "It had to be done. We were not achieving what we set out to achieve. The time has come to reassess, reaffirm our true priorities and, eventually, if a way can be found, to start again."

Diana was silent for a long moment before she spoke. "I was right," she said at last. "I was right about you when I first met you. You _are _a monster or a demon of some kind! Why don't you go back to Tartarus where you belong and leave the light to those of us born in it?" What shocked Bruce was not the abuse but the tired, certain tone of her voice. Anger he could manage, but a settled mind to oppose was a different order of problem.

"If I _am _a demon, Princess, maybe that is why I see things so differently to you. I suspect that it takes someone who lives down here, in the shadows of the real world, to understand what is truly needed. I have found that it is something that those of you who dwell on Olympus, literally or figuratively, cannot do."

The punch span Bruce half-way around and one side of his face exploded into agony as his cheekbone and jawbone both snapped like twigs from the power of the metahuman woman's blow. Bruce turned back and noted that Clark was holding Diana in a full-nelson wrestling hold and Ollie was up on the table, an arrow nocked and aimed at Diana's heart.

"Stand down," Bruce declared, forcing his damaged jaw to work by force of will alone. "We will not mark the start of this new era by slaughtering each other like feuding primitives. This matter goes no further."

Diana deliberately relaxed, cueing Clark to release her. Diana's hands flexed for a moment as if she were contemplating attacking Bruce again. "I _hate _you," she said at last. "I wish more than anything else that you really _did _die a year ago. I cannot believe that I ever thought that I could love you or that I ever mourned you."

When Bruce did not reply but maintained an icy, indifferent mask, she spoke again, her voice filled with murderous hatred. "_Damn you_," she declared, tears now openly running down her cheeks.

"I'm already there," Bruce said. "This whole world is. What I'm trying to do is find a way out for everyone."

Diana hissed with anger and stormed out of the meeting room. Bruce's face had settled into a slowly-numbing throb. He figured he would need a couple of teeth re-set at the very least. "You want me to drop you off at the hospital, Bats?" Ollie asked.

"I'll manage," Bruce gravelled in return. "I've had worse than this," he added truthfully.

* * *

"Master Bruce, there is a call for you."

Bruce looked up from his meditations in surprise. "A call?"

Alfred nodded gravely. "The Princess Diana of Themyscira. She seemed rather... _distressed_."

Frankly, Bruce never expected to hear from Diana ever again, unless it was to request his assistance in some matter (and that was unlikely). Even then she would contact him through the Oracle system, not the unsecured civilian communications network. Bruce picked up the 'phone by his chair. "Wayne."

"_Bruce, it's Diana._"

"Good evening, Princess. I must say that it is a surprise to hear from you."

There was an awkward pause before Diana spoke again. "_Bruce... Er... How's the jaw?_"

Automatically, Bruce flexed his jaw. The jaw and cheekbones were both pinned at the moment; it would be weeks before they were healed. However, they did not cause him a disabling level of discomfort. "Manageable. As you're well aware I've suffered far worse injuries. I also know that you could have killed me with that blow, if you really wanted to."

There was another pause before Diana spoke. "_No. No, I couldn't have. Hera help me, Bruce, but I couldn't have, even if I needed to._" Bruce was about to reply when Diana continued. "_I'm calling to tell you that it's over; that you've won._"

"Won?"

"_I'm returning to Themyscira tomorrow, forever. I've spoken to Donna and Cassandra. Donna has told me that she considers herself to already be home and Cassandra has informed me that her place is with her lover and her team-mates in the Titans. So, it appears that I will be returning home alone, to face the consequences of the failure of my mission to Man's World_."

This conversation was rapidly taking on a surreal nature for Bruce. "Failure?"

"_Failure to reform Man's World. Failure to teach the Patriarch's children our ways. Failure to mitigate in any way the strife and injustice of society. Perhaps Artemis was right to claim that I lacked the skill, will and ability to achieve it. I have no doubt that I will be stripped of my powers and titles and then exiled... if not required to end my own life. I just... just wish that... that I didn't have to tell mother that... that Donna has... _rejected _her... in favour of Man's World..._"

"Diana, hold on a moment and listen to me." There was a silence on the other end of the line apart from the sobs that had started to break into Diana's voice. "Diana, I wonder if you and I define the word 'failure' in the same way. I also wonder if you _truly _understand the nature of the mission you have claimed for yourself."

"_Bruce, you broke the League! I helped forge a force for good and justice throughout the world and you were able to convince its members to dissolve it! It will be _years _before another attempt like that would even be considered_ _again! How can I view that as anything but failure?_"

Bruce shook his head. "Diana, how many lives have you saved and how many criminals have you stopped on the streets of Washington DC and elsewhere?"

"_I... I don't know! I don't count those things! I do it because it is needful and right, not to fill some mental tally-chart of good deeds!_"

"Precisely," the Batman said in a gravely tone. "Your problem, Princess, is that you have been so focussed on making a grand public show of righteousness, which has little or no impact on individual lives, that you forgot where reform really starts. It starts in the hearts and minds of _individuals_. So long as corruption and crime endures, society continues in its low sink of barely-averted anarchy. With every life saved, with every crime prevented or punished, you give people _hope_. You let them hope that doing the right thing _is _rewarded. You let them believe that there _is _a penalty for wrongdoing. You let them believe that it _is _worthwhile to strive to do the right thing, to build rather than take and destroy. Every small step forward is precious, Princess. I've _always _believed that. _That _is the way to remake the world, not by stirring oratory or bestriding the globe in a shiny costume and carrying out vague 'good works'. It is measured life by life, hope by hope, future by future. It is a slow process. I do not believe that I will live to see the final outcome. I do not even know if my children's children will live to see that. However, I _do _believe with all my heart that, if we are resolute and teach our children to be resolute in their turn, we as a species _will _reach that goal in the end.

"Small steps, Princess. Teaching people to believe in good and right, one life at a time."

There was a silence from the other end of the line but Bruce knew Diana was still listening. "Diana, if you really want my advice, I agree that you _should_ go back to Themyscira, at least for a while. Take the opportunity to decompress. Once you have had a chance to step away from the emotion of the moment and _think_, you'll realise that you have done more constructive good by saving some random woman and her child from some random mugger than you ever have being photographed at a UN environmental conference. When you realise that, come back home to Washington and start to _really _fight this war that we've chosen for ourselves."

There was a click as Diana hung up. Had Bruce said enough? Would she listen and understand? He could only hope so. Either way, Wonder Woman's future lay in herself and whether she truly had the strength to spend night after night for year after year perched on roof-ledges, scaring the wits out of scum and saving ordinary folk, knowing it may be decades before even the smallest visible good results would be seen.

It was out of his hands now. He had his own city to fight for.

_To be continued…_


	3. Family

**Batman – The War Begins**

_By BenRG_

**Disclaimer**

Batman, the characters of the Batman and the Justice League universes are the property of DC Comics and its owners. This is a not-for-profit fan work for free distribution through the world-wide web. The author and distributor make no claim of ownership

**Author's Notes**

First and foremost, this story emerged from some thinking that I did about whether or not Batman really fit in with the Justice League and its philosophy. It also includes some aspects of my thinking of how one could salvage the DC comics' Batman continuity, despite some of the more _eccentric_ recent meta-plot developments without a total reboot.

This story exists in a similar fanon universe as my Teen Titans story 'Futures'. Although there are some differences, it has common characters and the same relationships.

Now on to the wrap-up, with a summary of the Futures-verse Bat Family.

My conception of Selina Kyle, Catwoman, owes much to fellow author Chris Dee's portrayal of her in the Cat Tales sequence of fan-fictions, which you can read on this site. She is not much like the character you'll see in the comics; she's unrepentant of her past and isn't about to lose her thief's perspective on the world. Most importantly, she has _never_ worn those goggles.

I owe a lot to Chris's _magnum opus_ for my overall vision of the Bat-verse; fellow fans of her work may see some other ideas of hers in places. Thanks for the inspiration, Chris.

**Censor: T** – Not for the younger ones

* * *

**Chapter 3 – Family**

Family.

Bruce Wayne had a family, once, a very long time ago. Dr. Thomas and Martha Wayne; Loving, warm-hearted parents who were gunned down for a less than a hundred dollars and a pearl necklace that was lost in the rush to escape in the aftermath of the shooting.

After that, ten-year-old Bruce never expected to have a family again.

Oh, there was Alfred. More than a mentor and more than a care-giver, the old man was the closest thing to a father that Bruce had from that time on. That said, he _wasn't_ his father and as deeply treasured his wisdom and friendship were, there was always the slight formal distance that existed between any good servant and his master.

No, Bruce did not expect to ever have a family ever again. He never expected to have the warm intimacy of someone who shared his heart. He did not expect to hear the laughter of children fill the manor. All he expected was the icy focus and professionalism of The Mission in the dark, cold crypt of the Batcave and the slow-motion funeral for a boy who only survived his parents in body, not in spirit.

Which made it all the more surprising when he gained a son.

It often surprised him when he realised how like a father and son by blood he and Dick Grayson were. They were so alike and yet so different. They shared so many common experiences and had developed such a bond of trust. It was ironic that this bond would be tested, broken and re-spliced time and time again, not over failure of one or the other but, bizarrely, Bruce's desperate attempt to protect his ward from the danger that a boy so young had consciously and willingly chosen to face alongside him.

It was in the nature of sons to eventually draw away from their fathers and strike out on their own. They would do this, not to defy their fathers but to prove to them that they are worthy of their love and their pride.

Dick should have known that nothing could possibly make Bruce love him less, no matter how frustrating the boy's behaviour could be. "_I was ready to die for you, Bruce_," he protested more than once. Bruce had reacted angrily. How could the boy say that? Didn't he realise that his death, either literally or becoming entangled with the insane web of his foster father's sick-minded Mission was the one thing that Bruce was fighting against with all his heart?

So it was that Dick went out and proved himself to be his father's son, worthy of Bruce's love and pride as if he were not already the unconditional recipient of such. Jump City. The Titans. Trigon. Slade. Saving Raven, Starfire, Jinx, Terra and innumerable others from both themselves and the vile filth that boiled up out of the sewers of Jump City as in every city on Earth. Becoming Nightwing and saving Blüdhaven, a city as lost in its own way as Gotham had ever been. Saving Barbara from herself when despair threatened to snuff out her flame forever...

Barbara...

Bruce had never made any claim on Jim Gordon's daughter, even though she willingly and eagerly adopted his quest, initially out of a strange quixotic desire to reach for greatness but, ultimately, out of a desire to help and to do the right thing. She became part of his life nonetheless, thanks in no small part to how she loved his son. Watching her and Dick together was like watching two halves of the same soul, even when they were both still pre-teens. Bruce should have guessed that, when their bodies awoke, they would have automatically followed physically where their hearts and souls had already gone long before.

Bruce wanted to protect Dick and Barbara from themselves and chose to do this by coming between them and severing their relationship with all the force at his disposal. This was a misjudgement for which he still bitterly accused himself. If he had not driven the two of them apart, then Barbara would certainly have followed Dick to Jump City. There, she would have been safe amongst the Titans, far away from a pitiful, broken, insane clown and his desperate drive to somehow justify his own evil and madness.

Barbara nearly died. Not simply in body but in spirit too. For a woman who once flew from rooftop to rooftop, being trapped in a wheelchair, unable to even pull herself out of bed without use of special apparatus, was to be trapped in a living hell. Dick saved her. Never once did he see the wheelchair or the numb, useless legs. No, he saw the beautiful, intelligent, courageous and, indeed, nearly _fearless _redheaded woman who always had been and always would be his first love. She was at all times completely perfect in his eyes.

So, Bruce found himself with a daughter-in-law, and one who was as dedicated to his cause as any blood child could be. The Oracle became as mighty a force for justice as any field agent, drawing together strings and evidence, acting as his invaluable eyes and ears on every street corner that only enhanced The Batman's reputation for being an omniscient force of nature.

But there were the _failures_.

Jason. Stephanie too, to a certain extent.

Jason Todd was a lost, lonely child. Different from Dick and from Bruce himself in so many ways. A brilliant, inquisitive child from the most unpromising of backgrounds, he proved himself a brilliant natural detective by succeeding where almost every villain, including some of the most brilliant minds on Earth, had failed and learning the true identity of the Batman by pure stealth and guile. The price for his silence was strange as it was inevitable. With nothing to hold him to his alcoholic father and long-vanished mother, he wished to become something more, something greater. Setting aside his reservations, Bruce agreed to train him to be the second Robin.

From the start, Jason was a different soul from Dick. Angry, betrayed, lashing out at a world that he could barely comprehend and without Dick's finely-honed sense of justice and morality. Jason always was a young man with his own priorities and his own goals. Eventually, Bruce knew, those quests and those needs would lead him away and off into a life of his own, for good and for ill.

Once again, a bone-white face with the fixed grin of death and the demented, sobbing laughter of mania intervened. This time, there would be no reprieve. The greatest and perhaps only comfort Bruce could draw from Jason's fate was that he died willingly having done one last good thing. He took a fatal blow to protect a woman that may have been his long-absent mother, even though the woman had cynically betrayed him to The Joker.

After that agonising loss, Bruce swore to himself that there would never be another Robin. As always, his plans did not take into consideration the extraordinary people who seemed drawn to his life.

Tim. His second son. Once again, not the son of his flesh but as great a son of his heart and soul as Dick ever was and in a way Jason _attempted _but ultimately failed. Tim was a brilliant boy, easily as smart as Bruce and with the same focussed dedication to justice that adorned Dick's soul. Like Jason, he stumbled backward into the mantle of Robin, by worth and dedication in his case. Tim had deduced that Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson were Batman and Robin when he was still a child. He had kept that secret for half a decade but, after Jason's death, Bruce began to slowly lose his hold on his humanity. So, realising that Bruce's quest was a worthy one and being willing to dedicate himself to it, he approached Bruce and, by his warmth of heart and honour, brought Bruce back from the brink. Bruce recognised his achievement by giving him the third red and green costume of Robin.

Tim's dedication made up for where he lacked Dick's astonishing natural acrobatic and martial skill. By sheer hard work, he made the grade. Lady Shiva and King Snake both called the boy their equal, a claim that could be made only Bruce and a handful of others.

Tim never once doubted Bruce and never once abandoned his quest, even during Azrael's disastrous time as Batman or the innumerable crises that brought Gotham close to total and irrevocable ruin. When Captain Atom's demented wife, Jean Loring, arranged the murder of Tim's father, Bruce simply confirmed in law what was already a fact and took the sad young man in to be his son.

So it was that Bruce found himself with two sons and a daughter-in-law. As the tide of chaos and disaster rose ever higher, he also acquired two daughters, both in the strangest of circumstances.

As the dread horror of No Man's Land settled down on the ruins of Gotham City, Bruce found himself with an extra pair of hands fighting at his side: A silent, supernaturally lethal feminine figure in an all-black approximation of Barbara's old fighting mantle. He came to call the figure 'Batgirl', lacking any other name for her.

It was Barbara, the previous holder of that title, who was to first see the lost, bewildered face behind that all-obscuring mask. Cassandra Cain, daughter of David Cain, with whom only Slade Wilson could possibly compete for the title of the most lethal assassin on Earth. Only slowly and haltingly with the most careful deliberation, dealing as they were with a creature that was _programmed_ to be a reflexive instrument of death, the Bat Family probed into the girl's horrifying origin.

David Cain had committed against his daughter atrocities that only Slade Wilson's cold, contemplative _violation _of his own youngest daughter came close to rivalling. Instead of teaching her to speak, from the earliest age Cain had instead carefully and with the greatest clinical precision, turned her into a perfect, living weapon. She was able to instantly judge any combatant based on subconscious cues and to _know_ how to defeat and destroy them so fast that it was a near reflexive process. Cassandra Cain, 'Cassie' as Dick, Barbara and Tim came to call her, was mute, physically _able_ to speak but utterly unable to communicate in almost any way except through an astonishingly complex but efficient self-created form of sign-language.

Bruce's children took her in and made her their project. They found and nurtured the child that she had never been permitted to be. They shared triumphs and tragedies, taught her to restrain and overcome her programmed reflexive impulse to kill if touched unexpectedly. They taught her to smile, laugh and, finally, how to speak. Bruce was present the first time that Cassie haltingly, with missing words and mangled grammar, complained to Barbara that Tim was, frankly, too silly for words. He still smiled as he remembered Barbara, Tim and Dick's look of disbelief followed by Cassie's weeping confusion as she was enveloped in three hugs, trying to deal with experiencing a love and unconditional acceptance that had never been offered to her by any of her blood.

Cassie had abandoned the teachings of her father and The League of Assassins. Programmed since birth to be able to interpret tactical situations with perfect acuity, she recognised the evil with which she had been surrounded, even if she lacked the ability to understand it in such abstract terms. It repelled her. Having heard of the Batman and his quest, she had come to Gotham with the desire of finding a war in which she could fight that would lead to the most positive outcome. Bruce could not help but be startled and gratified that anyone could view his hopeless railing against a lost, damned world as a worthy cause for which to fight.

Along the way, Cassie came closer and closer to those who had chosen to share his life. She began to live with Barbara and Dick. Tim carefully and with great patience and kindness, taught her to read, count and write, improving on her speech and sharing every triumph, every frustration and every joy. Probably the only thing that prevented them from immediately becoming the second Dick and Barbara was Stephanie.

Stephanie...

All of Bruce's adoptive children, both in law and heart, had their own reasons to fight. Stephanie Brown's reason was _redemption_. Her father, Arthur Brown, Cluemaster, was a low-ranking costumed villain, a member of the hopelessly ineffective 'Injustice League'. In truth, Brown was nothing but a petty crook with no more than _delusions _of importance on any scale. However, Stephanie, a beautiful, intelligent and moral young woman, could not forget or ignore the lives he had casually trampled on during his criminal career. So, she set out to become a costumed vigilante, to… _spoil_ the ambitions of the criminal world of which he was so proudly and shamelessly a part and clearly expected his children to adopt.

The Spoiler first came to Bruce's attention during the aftermath of the earthquake that preceded No Man's Land. At first he tried to dissuade the ill-prepared and ill-disciplined girl from her course. However, she shared one thing that all the Robins had – determination and dedication. With a focus and passion that Helena Bertinelli, Huntress, lacked, Spoiler forced her way into the Bat Family, initially following Tim and Cassie around until she was an accepted part of their group, a friend to both, possibly even closer than just a friend, perhaps even a sister. She was instrumental in solving several cases and always held up her end in a fight. Finally her hard work earned her an interview with The Bat himself.

Bruce most significant impression of that first formal meeting was how Stephanie was so like _Jason_. Like Jason, she was characterised by a desperate desire to make something constructive of a life that, otherwise, was shapeless and hopeless. There was also the same alienation and need for external validation that sometimes crippled Jason. For all she lacked Jason's rage and enjoyed an open, loving and artistic heart, Bruce feared what might become of her. Nonetheless, at Tim's recommendation and the unspoken but clear endorsement that Cassie gave by being willing to work with her, Bruce allowed her into his team, giving her an Oracle communicator and a place in the Batcave.

Stephanie tried so _very_ hard to be worthy. Bruce would challenge and strike down any man who dared to claim otherwise. She had been given a chance and she was determined to make the most of it. She wanted to be worthy, not only of Bruce's trust, but Cassie's enthusiastic embracing of this new and unfamiliar thing, a 'sister', and Tim's tentative, uncertain realisation that his feelings for her were _not_ those of a young man to a sister.

That was a golden time at Wayne Manor. Alfred loved having the three youngsters around, especially when Bruce was not nearby to restrain their behaviour. Bruce had a whole library of Batcomputer videos of the three of them racing about the manor, laughing and being so indisputably _alive_, gladly sharing that life with all around them. For a short while it was possible to imagine that Wayne Manor was a living home to a living family rather than the stately tomb paying host to a man whose body had yet to succumb to the death that claimed his soul when he was just ten years old.

Stephanie had proven her worth. She had proven it to the degree that, when Tim felt obliged to be absent from Gotham for a long period, it was Stephanie who wore the red-and-green mantle of the Robin and wore it well. Rarely had Bruce seen such a close and cohesive team as Batgirl, Robin and Spoiler. Three siblings in all-but-blood, united in the pursuit of justice.

It couldn't last. Not in Bruce Wayne's world. It was inevitable that he would bring disaster on everything good and light around him.

Stephanie had one overwhelming Achilles' heel, something of which neither Bruce, Dick and Barbara's tentative acceptance nor Tim and Cassie's love could cure her. She truly did not _believe_ herself good enough. Fear of failure and guilt by association distorted her every choice and slowly led her down a path of more and more disastrously ill-considered actions.

Tim and Cassie were nearly destroyed when they found Stephanie's savaged corpse in the alleyway. Tim took on the composure of oblivion that did not break until all of Black Mask's gang were in Blackgate Prison and the hideously-disfigured master-criminal was in Arkham where he belonged. Cassie lost nearly all the progress she had made in her emotional development and became a mechanical shell again. Only her utter unwillingness to abandon Bruce's worthwhile quest and her good friend Tim kept her in Gotham.

One mounted costume in the Batcave was a memorial to a good young man whose life was tragically wasted when it could have achieved so much. A second mounted costume, of a beautiful young woman struck down when she was on the cusp of happiness, made it feel very much like a tomb.

Bruce nearly drove the children away. He _had_ to protect Tim, Cassie, Dick and Barbara from his insanity, his hopeless quest and the disaster that the simple fact of his _existence _brought upon everyone he cared for. He probably would have attempted to do so but for one thing.

Selina.

Selina Kyle, the Catwoman, was probably the strangest of all the strange elements that Bruce considered part of his life. Chronologically, their complex interactions predated even his first meeting with Dick Grayson. Yet, she remained a constant, fresh and immediate aspect of his life.

_Hey, Stud! If you live out of the ordinary, you've got to expect to be surrounded by extraordinary people!_

Vivacious, sexually self-aware, fearless, utterly in love with life in every possible way... _and a thief_.

It was extraordinary that a brilliant cat burglar, a mistress of security systems and stealth second to none, could be anything to him other than a source of anger and despite. Instead, from the first time he saw her in action, he felt _arousal_ and _fascination_. She was beautiful and physically perfect. Unlike so many other criminals, she did not feel the slightest fear of him, regarding him, cat-like, as a challenge to her skills.

Bruce refused to admit it at first but she _obsessed _him. How could such a clearly intelligent and cultured woman be so utterly _amoral_? He amassed hours of videos and he spent every spare moment assessing her every move, her every twitch, her every sound in a desperate attempt to understand what drove her to this arrant stupidity.

_Pffft! You really are a self-righteous prig! Haven't you ever wanted to trip on the wild side?_

Selina remained constantly and infuriatingly outside of every parameter that Bruce had assembled to assess and categorise the "Rogue's Gallery" that he regularly faced in Gotham. She seemed to sway back and forth between hero, vigilante and villain seemingly at will, changing alignment at a whim and never, ever being predictable.

_Hey, read the name back, Handsome. Cat. Woman. Cats do their own thing when they want to do. Women do too._

Catwoman would one week be stealing a fortune in gems and next week fighting alongside Bruce against some plot of Ra's Al-Ghul or stopping Joker massacring half the population of Gotham. She was... _infuriating_. She had been there through every Robin, through Azrael's ill-fated tenure as Batman, through the Contagion and through No-Man's Land. She had idly referred to the younger members of his group as his 'kids' long before Bruce had the courage to admit to that definition himself. They, in turn had recognised the mutual fascination and interest between him and her.

_Those kids are smarter than they look, Lover. Was that because of you or despite you? Meow!_

It was in that dark time leading up to and immediately after Stephanie's death and the gang war that her death inadvertently triggered that Selina really came into her own. About a year previously, she had finally given up the criminal life. Betrayal by Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn had cured her of any lingering romantic attraction to a life as an outlaw.

_Meh, I probably would have given it up anyway. I mean, you can only steal the same damn Jade Bast from the same damn museum so many times before you find yourself hanging upside-down in a vault and thinking "Same old, same old!"_

Selina Kyle had no job history and no past; this made starting a legitimate life difficult at best. Bruce couldn't help but admire the chutzpah that led her to ask _Batman_, of all people, for a character reference. It was foolish of him, but he couldn't resist the chance to get to know the woman that had haunted his most fevered fantasies for years. She was everything that he hoped for. Fun, mischievous, artistic, cultured and with a surprisingly strong (if somewhat feline-like) sense of morality. Finding her desire to start a new life strong, Bruce utilised her skills as a security analyst in a few of his cases and, with her sincerity proven, arranged for her to gain employment as a consultant at Wayne Industries.

Selina became an invaluable sounding-board for Bruce. Her unique and different world-view ensured that she almost never saw a problem from the same perspective as he did. It was she whose advice helped Bruce work through innumerable trials of caring for Cassie, dealing with Stephanie's sometimes taxing behavioural issues, helping Tim through his father's death and handling what was, even now, his somewhat-problematic relationship with Dick and Barbara.

Bruce soon realised that he was just as useful to Selina too. The fact was that she had fears of her own and shadows in her past that she was fighting hard to conquer. He knew things that he took for granted but that were mysteries to a woman who had lived a nearly-rootless life for two decades. He helped her gain a sense of permanence and belonging that she had never, ever really had before.

_Hey, every cat needs to find a home eventually! Besides... um... did I ever thank you...? For the plumbing thing? I mean, electronics and security systems, yes, but I really don't know one end of a monkey wrench from another and..._

_Yeah..._

_And the holding me and telling me that it's okay to call a place 'home'? Yeah, I liked that too. Purr._

Without realising it, Selina taught Bruce something that he had never realised or allowed himself to hope for ever before. He _was_ alive. He _wanted_ to live, to love and to be surrounded by life and those he loved. He was not an empty shell fighting a meaningless war for the sake of revenge but a man who was attempting to make all the losses and sacrifices meaningful by trying to ensure that it would not _ever_ happen again.

When Stephanie, in one of her foolish gestures, seduced Tim and allowed herself to fall pregnant, it was Selina to whom Bruce turned to for advice. It was a good thing, because she understood what needed to be done with startling clarity.

She had willingly taken in Stephanie and Tim's illegitimate daughter and was raising the child as her own (Selina had once mischievously referred to her as 'My Catgirl in training'). Wayne Industries-developed gene therapy changed the girl's hair from blonde to black and added enough of Selina's gene markers that the finest forensic lab on Earth would show her as Selina's daughter. It was the least Bruce could have done to protect the child of a young woman whom he had failed so very terribly. One day, he would tell Abby Kyle who she really was and he hoped that she would understand why he did what he did and perhaps even forgive him.

_It's nice to be appreciated. I mean, was it really that hard big guy? _

_As for Abby? Well, the kid needs an adoptive parent and yet you don't want her to be so far away from her real mama and papa that there is no chance of her knowing them! You knew that I was a caring sort from all the cash I spent on the Catitat over the years so... Well, it was a no-brainer. Besides, I was glad to help out Steph and Tim._

_It was a pleasure._

_Seriously._

_No, I mean it. Abby and me? We're a team. Abby, tell your Da Bruce that we're a team. See? She agrees! That babble means yes!_

So it was that, when Stephanie died and all seemed bleakest, that Bruce Wayne turned to a woman that he had come to trust as a counsellor and helper in all things. It was Selina who told Bruce something that he didn't want to hear but knew that, if it came from her, it had to be true. She told him that Dick, Barbara, Tim and Cassie loved him and that driving them away would only hurt them far more terribly than any other calamity that could befall them. It was Selina who told him, absolutely and beyond doubt that his small band of followers was more than like-minded fellow soldiers. They were his support structure, the ones for whom he was doing this. They were his _family._

Two sons. A daughter-in-law. A daughter.

And a _wife_.

That was one thing neither he nor Selina had expected. Somewhere along the way, all the trust, the attraction and the compatibility in so many ways had blossomed into something more. Selina and Abby were spending more time at the Manor than they were at Selina's East Side apartment. Selina's cat suit was dusted off and found a place in the Costume Vault in the cave. The user name 'KITTY_09' started appearing in Batcomputer log entries. Suddenly, a lot of feminine stuff was in Bruce's bedroom and its associated _en suite _bathroom. Bruce had stopped dating random society bimbos and the same black-haired goddess accompanied him to every function.

"_I will make a companion for the man as a helper and a compliment to him_." And a lover. Someone who completed and perfected Bruce's life in a way that both terrified him and made him wonder how he had functioned for so long without her at his side.

_Aww! Stud! I love you too! It's been a wild ride to date and I know things are just gonna get better_!

Thanks Selina.

There were two more faces that were late and recent additions to this family. Two innocent children, created by evil but set free by hard work and taken in both as a duty and as a willing gift to prove that _no one _should pay the price for another's decisions.

She wasn't _really_ Stephanie Brown, for all she had some faked memories of her life. She certainly felt no connection to the Brown family and had no desire to cause them needless pain by approaching them with either the true story of her origin or the rather unbelievable one that was programmed into her mind. Where else could she go? Bruce would not drive her out. How could he when her existence was entirely due to Ra's need to bring destruction upon his family for his own ends?

Stephanie Wayne, adopted daughter of Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle.

He truly was the son of Bruce's flesh. Although he was created without Bruce's consent, he was nonetheless his son. The evil of his mother's side was not in any way something for which Damien could be held responsible and it had no power over him anymore. Damien was a happy, vivacious boy who had no greater desire than to prove himself part of his father's family and fight against the sort of evil that created him to be its tool.

Damien Wayne, son by blood of Bruce Wayne, son by adoption to Selina Kyle.

Willingly, they had accepted their father's quest as their own, not in a desire to affirm their connection to him but, rather, to deny their connection to Ra's Al-Ghul. To prove that it is one's _choices_, not one's origins or blood, that determined your destiny and fate. A determination that no man should ever wield such power for evil ever again. So it was that a third Batgirl and a fifth Robin had appeared in the skies of Gotham.

* * *

Bruce stepped out of the elevator onto the top level of the six-story cylindrical cave that was the Batcave. All around him were the tools of his chosen vocation, and the memories of a decade and a half of struggle that sometimes felt like a lifetime.

"So, you finally finished chewin' the fat, Stud?"

Bruce looked over at Selina, who was just finishing dressing in the modified version of her purple-and-black Catwoman costume that Bruce had helped design. This new form of her costume included pouches around the top of the long gloves and boots, the extra armour in several areas and the 'Caterangs' attached to a pseudo-leather bandoleer with a purple cat's-paw-marked belt buckle, curving around those sensuous hips.

Selina snapped her fingers in front of Bruce's eyes. "Enjoying the view?" she asked with a sensual smile.

Years of association and the emotional health that Bruce had fought hard to win allowed him to smile unrepentantly. "Oh yeah, Kitten. You know that I am!" Selina 'meowed' and laughed in approval.

"Master Bruce?" Alfred announced. "Everyone is here now, sir."

Bruce nodded and, with Selina slinking jauntily along behind him, he descended to the Cave's bottom level.

The first thing that he saw was Stephanie, clad in her black-and-lavender Batgirl costume but sans the cowl, playing with Abby. For all she was genetically the little girl's mother, Stephanie had already made it clear that Abby would never be allowed to think of her in that way. A clone, artificially programmed with a facsimile of Stephanie Brown's memories, Steph considered herself only a strange, younger identical twin sister of Abby's dead mother. She would be Abby's adoptive older sister and, when the little girl was old enough to comprehend the complex interplay of blood and law relationships, her Auntie Steph, nothing more.

Abby was laughing as she and her 'aunt' were playing pat-a-cake. Bruce immediately noticed the little girl look up and grin. Steph, focussed on her 'niece' didn't notice until she saw the change in the shadows as Damien, perched on one of the logic towers of the Batcomputer, somersaulted over his adoptive sisters' heads and landed with a silent cat-like grace behind Steph. "Will you stop fooling around, Dee?" Steph groused.

"Hey, got to keep you on your toes, _Sis_!" Damien shot back with an unrepentant grin. Oh, there was tension between these two youngest; Bruce hoped that time would, if not smooth it out, at least teach them how to function together.

"You two need to get your heads around using your codenames when you're in uniform," declared a strong voice. Dick Grayson, Nightwing, had used every piece of stealth skill that his foster father had taught him to come upon the youngest Waynes without a hint of warning.

"Ai!" Damien protested. "Grayson, are you trying to break my sternum with my heart?"

"Just keeping you on your toes, _Baby Bro_!" Dick mocked, roughing up the boy's black hair and earning a dangerous scowl in return.

"What keeps _you _on your toes, Dick?" Steph asked with fake innocence.

Dick turned to look over at his wife, who was finishing programming tonight's patrol routes and monitoring routines into the Oracle network. Barbara turned her chair around, stood up and performed a perfect gymnastic somersault to land beside her husband and grin down at her brother and sisters-in-law. "You have to ask?" Dick asked with a grin.

Ra's's cloning and other related technologies were now firmly and safely in the hands of Wayne Industries. Under other circumstances, Bruce's first task would have been to find some way to regenerate Barbara's spine but that was not necessary. Three years ago now, cybernetic technology perfected by Dick's friend, Victor Stone, Cyborg of the Titans, had replaced Barbara's severed spine and given her back the ability to walk, to run, to tumble, to _fly_. After completing extensive physical therapy with terrifying single-mindedness, she decided to once again take a more active role in what she easily referred to as the "Family Business". Cassie had indicated that she was more than willing to surrender the name 'Batgirl' to her but Barbara wouldn't hear of it. Instead, she developed a new costume, mirroring Dick's black and blue Nightwing costume but replacing his blue eagle with a red and gold firebird. Appropriately, she adopted a new codename.

"Phoenix, is everything ready?"

"All set, Batman," Barbara replied. "We can access the full network from the mobile terminals on the Batmobile, the Roadwing and the bikes."

Bruce nodded in satisfaction. Selina looked over her shoulder towards the practice gymnasium. "If you two can stop flirting and get your butts over here?"

It was impossible to tell whether Tim and Cassie were blushing, given that their current costumes included near-full face masks. Although they may _not_ have been flirting, it would certainly have been unusual if that were the case. Since Cassie's return to Gotham, she and Tim had been making up for lost time. Steph had been a fairly typical infuriating younger sister, according to Selina, by 'practising her tracking skills' and ensuring that the two rarely had any privacy.

Bruce understood that the children had wondered if Selina would start to use the name and mantle of 'Batwoman', as she was the matriarch of the clan (something that made Selina blush and mutter something about 'being made to feel old'). However, Selina was resolute. She had begun her costumed life as the Catwoman. She had embraced felinity in all its forms and she wasn't about to become 'a flying mouse' just because in all but a piece of paper she was the wife of Batman. Catwoman she was and Catwoman she would stay.

So it was that Red Robin was not accompanied on his patrols by Blackbird, as had been a possibility. Instead, he was accompanied by someone who had, by dedication, loyalty and courage, had earned the title of Batwoman.

Bruce looked around at the people dear to him as they stood around him. Bruce Wayne had a family, once, a very long time ago. He had not ever expected to have a family again.

He had got one anyway.

_Dick Grayson... Nightwing... Son..._

_Barbara Grayson... Phoenix... Daughter-in-law..._

_Tim Drake... Red Robin... Son..._

_Cassie Cain... Batwoman... Daughter..._

_Stephanie Wayne... Batgirl... Daughter..._

_Damien Wayne... Robin... Son..._

_Selina Kyle... Catwoman... Wife..._

They would be enough.

He had allowed himself to be distracted by Clark and Diana's naïve fantasies for too long. The time for half measures was over. The war began _tonight_.

Bruce Wayne, Batman, pulled up his cowl to cover his face and watched as his family donned their cowls and masks in response. "Let's go to work," Batman commanded.

**The End**


End file.
